Featured Reviews and Articles

"...The most important part of Lucia’s film is that now she brings the story to us. We came to watch the film and listen to Lucia, Samuel, and Iduvina, but now we carry this story that inspires us to learn more. We must share it to others so it will never be forgotten. As Julie Southwell, the representative from Amnesty International on the panel, said, “We can now take action.” This is not only a struggle about Lucia, Samuel, and Iduvina’s families, or about Guatemala, it is about our society as a whole, and addressing repression, disappearances, lack of information, and lack of freedom as a difficult but true global reality..."

"...The film narrative details Lucía’s research and is presented via new interviews and footage of her journey intercut with an impressive range of archive material. It is technically an ‘authored’ documentary, but unlike the filmmakers who ‘perform’ for their own camera, Lucía remains a remarkably composed interviewer and commentator – despite the shocking revelations she is witness to. The narrative is more or less chronological though some material is shifted back or forward to strengthen the engagement of the viewer. Lucía’s commentary stitches the material together elegantly. There is an unobtrusive and careful use of music and overall the film is beautifully photographed and edited..."

"...I found the film compelling and at time moving. It manages to be informative about a neo-colonial war that is little known. Yet is does this without overburdening with historical explanation: the inferences are there, as in the telling photograph of US President Eisenhower with CIA-Chief Allen Dulles. The treatment of the long war is similar; the criminal events are presented simply without too large an emphasis on the awful statistics. The film melds very effectively the personal and the political. And what is most memorable is the restraint and dignity of the many survivors as they recount another unacceptable chapter in recent history..."

"...While the convictions of military officials in recent years are hugely significant, it is crucial that the criminal cases against other high-ranking officials at the top of the chain of command continue to progress. Military archives containing evidence of the abuses must finally be opened so that further prosecutions can take place – and so that the relatives of those who were murdered or disappeared so long ago can learn the truth..."